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Marie Stopes International hoping to recruit more students into ‘abortion care’

Marie Stopes International is attempting to encourage young medical students into providing abortions as it faces potential shortages in trained medical professionals willing to do abortions.

The abortion giant is working with Health Education England and a range of UK universities as it seeks to promote its new abortion clinic placement programme to students.

A pilot scheme, conducted with King’s College London, has seen two students say they’re both keen on continuing in abortion provision.

Trishnu told the Royal College of Nursing magazine: “Being able to come here allowed me to develop my knowledge about abortion and the medical aspects of contraception”.

Ozlem, a young Muslim woman who underwent the placement, added: “it’s rare to see Muslim females and Muslim males come to clinics for an abortion. Now that I’ve had this opportunity, I can also spread the word, letting them know that you can make your own choice.”

Students could be forced into ‘abortion skills’ training

In 2016, it emerged only 1% of trainee obstetricians and gynaecologists were taking higher training in abortion.

Attempts to increase those numbers in recent years haven’t come from just Marie Stopes.

Last year, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released a report stating its intention to teach and assess “abortion skills” as part of its core curriculum.

Going a step further than the NICE recommendations, RCOG’s proposals fail to mention any conscientious objection provision for pro-life students who don’t want to provide ‘abortion care’.

In its Better for Women report, the College says “the General Medical Council (GMC) should review the Undergraduate medical curriculum to include the importance of abortion care to students.

“The RCOG will teach abortion skills as a part of its core curriculum and assess those skills through examination.”

All doctors who practise medicine in the UK must be registered with the GMC, meaning if the proposals are adopted, pro-life medical students could be forced to sit through undefined “abortion skills” training or risk losing their membership of the medical body.

‘Indoctrination’

A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: “The extremely low number of trainee obstetricians and gynaecologists who are taking higher training in abortion likely reflects an innate human reluctance to end life.

“Marie Stopes International’s new placement scheme is nothing but an attempt to indoctrinate young medical students.

“Future healthcare professional’s training should be directed at offering the best possible care to all humans, including unborn babies.”

Dear reader,

You may be surprised to learn that our 24-week abortion time limit is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds is 12 weeks gestation.

The latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks. The latest research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation can survive outside the womb, and this number increases with proactive perinatal care.

This leaves a real contradiction in British law. In one room of a hospital, doctors could be working to save a baby born alive at 23 weeks whilst, in another room of that same hospital, a doctor could perform an abortion that would end the life of a baby at the same age.

The majority of the British population support reducing the time limit. Polling has shown that 70% of British women favour a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below.

Please click the button below to sign the petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to do everything in his power to reduce the abortion time limit.